Nos profs dans les médias

Is Canada on the path to totalitarianism?

Publication: Al Jazeera

Craig Forcese, Faculty of Law, comments on the arrest of 10 young Montreal residents suspected of wanting to leave the country to join jihadist groups, last week at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport.
 

Province to regulate e-cigarettes; Flavoured tobacco gets outright ban

Publication: National Post

David Sweanor, Faculty of Law, discusses the provincial government's move to regulate e-cigarettes and to ban flavoured tobacco. “It’s really forcing Ontarians to continue smoking cigarettes rather than moving them to products that would be massively less hazardous.”
 

Bill C-50 facing mounting opposition ahead of Poilievre committee appearance

Publication: Yahoo News Canada

Michael Pal, Faculty of Law, comments on Bill C-50, tabled in the House just after the Ontario Superior Court struck down a rule barring anyone living overseas for more than five years from voting, stating that it violates the spirit of that court ruling.
 

Gare aux fausses accusations, dit une experte

Publication: Le Droit

Teresa Scassa, Faculté de droit, discute de sa préoccupation envers l'annonce de Facebook Canada de diffuser des alertes Amber sur les fils d'actualité de ses abonnés. « C'est certainement un danger sur la réputation, les fausses accusations, ou les accusations exagérées. »

Victim fines spur break between lower and higher courts

Publication: The Globe and Mail

Carissima Mathen, Faculty of Law, comments on Ontario judges that are ordering impoverished offenders to pay nominal fines, causing unusual discord between judges, stating that the judges’s use of the nominal fines “doesn’t count as outright disobedience. Maybe chutzpah”.
 

Latest Privacy Revelations Show It's Up to Canadians to Protect Themselves

Publication: TheTyee

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, writes an Op-Ed on how Canadians should protect themselves from being monitored by surveillance agencies.
 

Privacy law inadequate for emerging technology, panel suggests

Publication: iPolitics

This article pertains to the University of Ottawa’s Emerging Issues in Public Law session held on Friday, with guest speakers Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Karen Eltis, and Graham Mayeda, both from the Faculty of Law.
 

Dalhousie says sexism controversy part of climate in dentistry faculty

Publication: The Globe and Mail

This article pertains to a report to be released at the end of June on Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry. The report was created by an independent task force led by Constance Backhouse, Faculty of Law.
 

Your government is spying on you online. Here's what you can do about it: Geist

Publication: Toronto Star

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, writes an Op-Ed on electronic intelligence agencies tapping into mobile browsers in order to collect data on suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets.
 

'Conscious objectivity': That's how the chief justice defines the top court's role. Harper might beg to differ

Publication: National Post

Carissima Mathen, Faculty of Law, comments on an article discussing the top court's role. « The government is comfortable in this tense, adversarial relationship because it can then present itself to voters as trying its best and not failing so much as being thwarted. »
 

Legal experts decry retroactive Conservative law but say it can't be stopped

Publication: CTV News

Michel Drapeau, Faculty of Law, comments on the Harper government retroactively rewriting a law to absolve RCMP wrongdoing. "Can they do it? The answer is yes. Is it legal? The answer is you can probably find a way, but it's against every precedent, against any notion, against any principle that laws should not be retroactive."

Michel Drapeau, Faculté de droit, commente sur le gouvernement Harper qui tente de modifier une loi dans le but de protéger a posteriori la Gendarmerie royale du Canada contre toute poursuite pour des gestes commis par le passé. « Est-ce que les conservateurs peuvent le faire? La réponse est: oui. Est-ce que c’est légal? La réponse est: il y a probablement une façon de le faire, mais il s’agit d’un geste sans précédent, qui va à l’encontre du principe qui veut que les lois ne devraient pas être rétroactives. »
 

Secret Documents Reveal Canada's Spy Agencies Got Extremely Cozy With Each Other

Publication: VICE

Craig Forcese, Faculty of Law, discusses cooperation between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and its foreign intelligence counterpart, the Communication Security Establishment (CSE). "If CSE is providing assistance to CSIS under Mandate C, then CSE is clothed with the same legal authority CSIS has." Wesley Wark, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, also comments, stating that there is need for a review body that can actually investigate how Mandate C is used.
 

Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware

Publication: CBC News

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, comments on electronic intelligence agencies tapping into mobile browsers in order to collect data on suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets . "All of this is being done in the name of providing safety and yet … Canadians or people around the world are put at risk."
 

Justice system ill-equipped to help radicalized youth: experts

Publication: iPolitics

Carissima Mathen, Faculty of Law, comments on how Canada’s juvenile justice system deals with young extremists, stating that under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, sentencing guidelines are left to the discretion of a judge, who must focus on rehabilitation.
 

Is it fair to make a public appeal for a live organ donor?

Publication: The Globe and Mail

In this Op-Ed, Jennifer Chandler, the Bertram Loeb Research Chair in Organ and Tissue Donation, discusses the public debate on weither or not it is fair to make a public appeal for a live organ donor. "Although some people are critical of public appeals for live organ donors, refraining from launching such campaigns does nothing to help anyone."
 

Canada Post refuses to disclose info about delivery complaints

Publication: Toronto Star

Michel Drapeau, Faculty of Law, comments on Canada Post refusing to disclose information related to complaints about mail delivery, arguing that as a public institution, it has both a moral and legal duty to provide an accounting to citizens.
 

Man crowdfunding his fight against the 10-year wait for a legal pardon

Publication: The Globe and Mail

Adam Dodek, Faculty of Law, comments on a lawyer’s attempt to raise $20,000 through “crowdfunding” for a constitutional challenge, calling it an attempt “to apply 21st-century technology to a justice system that is still largely stuck in the 19th century: a kind of Steve Jobs meets Rumpole of the Bailey.”
 

Why is Canada lagging behind with its broadband goals? Geist

Publication: Toronto Star

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, writes an Op-Ed on Canada's inconsistent broadband goals.
 

Ottawa man's right to trial in French was violated, appeal court rules

Publication: Toronto Star

Pierre Foucher, Faculty of Law, discusses the violation of an Ottawa man’s right to a trial in French. “The law is clear. The Criminal Code is clear. The Charter of Rights (and Freedoms) is clear. Ontario legislation is clear. In this day and age, there should be no excuse to deny language rights.”
 

Canada Revenue notifies $58M kids' charity it must shut down

Publication: CBC

Vern Krishna, Faculty of Law, was hired by the Giving Tree Foundation after the CRA issued a notice last month warning the foundation would be stripped of its status on May 14th.
 

Omar Khadr should serve sentence as youth, Supreme Court rules

Publication: Ottawa Citizen

Carissima Mathen, Faculty of Law, discusses the Supreme Court's ruling that Omar Khadr should serve his sentence as a youth. “Other than the fact it’s Omar Khadr, I don’t think it’s that big a decision, even in the (Tories’) tough-on-crime agenda." François Larocque, Faculty of Law, also comments, stating that the judgment won’t change a thing in Omar Khadr’s life right away.
 

Harper government tries to kill all traces of long-gun registry

Publication: CBC News

Michel Drapeau, Faculty of Law, comments on the mishandling an access to information request for long-gun registry records, stating that if the RCMP destroyed some registry records before any legislation was passed, the force could face a criminal charge.
 

Provinces move to regulate e-cigarettes as Ottawa studies issue

Publication: The Globe and Mail 

David Sweanor, Faculty of Law, comments of e-cigarette usage which has recently been regulated in Nova-Scotia. “I’m very big on the idea of alternative nicotine and I see electronic cigarettes ... as an indication of where we could go.”
 

Shrinking the public domain

Publication: National Post

This article mentions recent publications on copyright by Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.
 

Two sexual assault charges dropped against Jian Ghomeshi; others stand

Publication: Toronto Star

Blair Crew, Faculty of Law, comments on the Jian Ghomeshi case, stating that The Crown has to look at whether it can prove each element of the offence.